You're going along, having a fine day, when all of a sudden, you are emotionally sucker-punched by something. Usually it is someone else you know and care about that has caused this wind-knocked-out-of-you place (that either takes the form of anger, depression, sadness, etc).
Utterly Derailed.
Now what?
Depending on who you are, you will do one of the following:
a) fire off a text or e mail or call that may or may not be helpful
b) watch Netflix shows one after the other until you can't even focus on the screen anymore
c) make cookies and eat the whole bowl of dough and then feel sick
or, perhaps you will do all three in quick succession, like I have sometimes been known to do.
Occaionally (rarely), I can funnel that emotional guck into productive work …
But regardless of which way I might act out of those feelings, I find myself more, of late, becoming curious about the deeper story behind them.
Of course, there is the surface story – he was thoughtless, she misunderstood me, etc. But what is underneath all of it? Is it that I am insecure and therefore reactive? Or am I oblivious and for that reason, I missed something important and now they are reactive? Is this less about the content of the event and more about what is actually going on in the deeper undercurrents?
At the risk of sounding too much like a mom about all this, I am going to step out on a limb and say, generally, something more is going on. Even if all that is happening is that their blood sugar level is plummeting and they need a granola bar before this can be resolved (yes, this is me I am talking about). I have tried really hard, of late, to invite God into the question (What is actually going on here?) – because I think He knows more about it than I do.
I hate being flooded by overwhelming feelings. It feels (pun intended) very out-of-control. Something I'm not so fond of experiencing. Sometimes (and I wonder if this is often), I just need to ride out the day and know that in the morning, its like I'll have a clean slate emotionally. The issue will remain, but the overpowering emotion will have dissapated. This actually is not all that bad advice … it gives you time to cool down, to process, to ponder. Getting a bit of distance often helps give you a clear and healthy "what's next."
Yep.
BTW I suggest Netflix over the other options. The dough is too fattening and the texts can never be retracted. Since I have recently experienced the Tyranny … I think I am headed for some serious serial show watching …